Wednesday, December 30, 2009
DCMud's 2009 Year in Review
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Northwest One Project Announces Start Date
Labels: Banneker Ventures, Northwest One, William C. Smith
The $80m project will include 313 new housing units, with 30% pledged for "affordable" housing. 59 of the units will be set aside for former Temple Courtiers.
The Warrenton Group has been having a good year with DC officials, having been named recently as the local partner for the planned Park Morton, a $130m project announced earlier this month, and having been selected last December (as Banneker Ventures) to build the Deanwood Community Center, and last October rebuild the Strand Theater. Warrenton Group was also given a new lease on life for the Florida Avenue parcel, awarded to Banneker by WMATA in 2008 but not built out.
Architecture firm Eric Colbert & Associates will design the 12-story building, and William C. Smith & Co affiliated WCS Construction team will build it. The larger Northwest One project, in all $700 million worth of development, will also include Jair Lynch and affordable housing provider Community Preservation and Development Corporation, which together will team up as the One Vision Development Partners as a Certified Business Enterprise.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Park Morton Gets a Two-For
Labels: Georgia Avenue, Landex Corp., Park View, Warrenton Group, Wiencek + Associates
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Industry Insight: Adrian G. Washington of the Neighborhood Development Company
Labels: Affordable Housing, Columbia Heights, Georgia Avenue, interview, Neighborhood Development Company, Park Morton
Thursday, January 08, 2009
DC's Development Pipeline in 2009
Still, many District-solicited projects await the green light to begin construction, in the process of selecting a team or are still up for grabs. Here's a breakdown of those projects and where they stand for 2009.
Available Proposals:
In one of their more unique offers, the Office of the Deputy Mayor Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) is currently seeking a developer to take control of a 13.5-acre concrete manufacturing facility at 1515 W Street, NE. The site is currently operated by the District Department of Transportation, which plans to vacate the facility by August. Any new tenant will be required to submit to a ground lease agreement for a minimum of 10 years. Proposals for the “Develop and Operate a Concrete Plant Solicitation” are due by January 9th.
As previously reported, ODMPED is currently seeking a development team to revitalize two long-abandoned properties at 400-414 Eastern Avenue and 6100 Dix Street, NE, in the Deanwood neighborhood. The city government is looking to redevelop the properties into an affordable housing complex with a local retail component. Proposals are due to ODMPED by February 16th.
One of the bigger projects currently on deck with the city government is the redevelopment of several “excess” schools, closed due to recent budget shortfalls and threadbare facilities. These include Backus Middle School, Grimke Elementary School, Hine Junior High School, the Langston School, M.M. Washington High School, the historic 1911 school building of Randle Highlands Elementary School, Rudolph Elementary School, the Slater School, the unoccupied portion of Slowe Elementary School, Stevens Elementary School, and Young Elementary School. The sites will not be put to their former use; any plans will be considered, provided they exhibit a “creative vision for development or reuse” and “an understanding of neighborhood context.” A pre-bid conference will be held January 9th, proposals for the redevelopment of any or all of the facilities are due by February 27th.
ODMPED has also “amended and restated” their solicitation of offers for the Park Morton public housing project redevelopment that had been previously announced in September of last year. Proposals for that project are now also due by February 27th.
Proposals Submitted:
Bidding recently closed on three vacant parcels the District intends to re-appropriate as parking lots: 463 I Street, NW (available for 24 months until construction commences on Donohoe’s Arts at 5th & I project), 2 Patterson Street, NE and 33 K Street, NW (formerly the demolished Temple Courts public housing complex).
Proposals were received in September for two District-owned parcels at Fourth/Sixth and E Streets, SW – one piece of which is intended to house the Metropolitan Police Department’s new Consolidated Forensic Laboratory.
An announcement is anticipated soon regarding proposals submitted in October for the Hill East Waterfront/Reservation 13 project, which is intended to include more than 5 million square feet of mixed-use development and an extension of Massachusetts Avenue, SE – the latter of which is already underway. As of November, the District had narrowed down the contenders to competing four development teams.
The so-called “Lincoln Lots” – two V Street, NW parcels adjoining Shaw’s historic Lincoln Theatre – were also the subject of an RFP that closed this past September. ODMPED was seeking “developers to assist in repositioning real estate associated with the [theatre] to complement and benefit the ongoing operation of the Lincoln.”
Development Partners Selected:
Of the projects solicited by ODMPED over the past year, the majority have already been snatched up by development teams. These include Blue Skye Development, in concert with the Mayor’s New Communities Initiative, for an abandoned apartment complex at 4427 Hayes Street, NE; Donatelli Development and Mosaic Urban Partners for two parcels at 3813-3815 and 3825-3829 Georgia Avenue, NW; Blue Skye Development and the Educational Organization for United Latin Americans for the abandoned Tewkesbury building at 6425 14th Street, NW; Argos Group for two District-owned Capitol Hill properties at 525 Ninth Street, NE and 1341 Maryland Avenue, NE (aka Old Engine House 10); Donohoe Companies for the Arts at 5th & I project in the Mount Vernon Triangle; Donatelli Development and Blue Skye Development for the $108 million mixed-use project adjoining the Metro station at Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, NE; the William C. Smith & Co., Jair Lynch Companies, Banneker Ventures LLC and CPDC for the $700 million, 1600 unit Northwest One New Community that also includes retail, office and medical components; Clark Realty for the massive, $2.5 billion redevelopment of Southeast’s Poplar Point community; and, lastly, Washington Community Development Corporation and Banneker Ventures, LLC for the transformation of Deanwood’s dilapidated Strand Theatre into a mixed-use retail and office complex.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Project Taken to New Heights on Georgia Avenue
Labels: Donatelli, Georgia Avenue, Neighborhood Development Company, Petworth
The Heights' all-affordable status has put it in a unique position with the District of Columbia. This week, Councilmember Jim Graham will introduce a bill before the City Council that aims to grant the project an exemption from property taxes for the next 40 years - provided it maintains an at least 50% margin of affordable housing in that time. The proposal should be voted upon sometime this fall.
NDC president Adrian G. Washington told DC Mud that ANC approval for The Heights at Georgia is forthcoming. “We’ve met with the ANC on several occasions and gotten a letter of support from the single-member district commissioner…We’re actually going tomorrow and we hope they will formally approve it.”
The Georgia Avenue site was acquired by a partnership of NDC and Mi Casa Inc. – a DC-based non-profit that specializes in restoring aging properties and converting them into affordable housing. The Heights will be their second brand-new new construction project (the first being the Rittenhouse Project in Brightwood). The building is being designed by architect Graham Parker and will come in at a cost of approximately $25 million. Construction is slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The Heights is only one of numerous projects currently in development in the Petworth neighborhood. Up the street at 4136 Georgia, Formant Development's proposed 57-unit, 7 story condominium tower is still scheduled to go to ground in 2009. Meanwhile, Donatelli Development’s Park Place is currently under construction and their proposed project across the street at 3801 Georgia recently issued a BID to contractors. These twin projects are joined by the massive redevelopment just up the street of the Park Morton public housing complex.
UPDATE: The Heights at Georgia Avenue's final address has been confirmed as 3232 Georgia Avenue NW - across the street from the NDC's Lamont Lofts project that was completed in 2005.
Washington D.C. real estate development
Friday, October 03, 2008
Northeast DC Icon Gets a Little Help
Labels: Banneker Ventures, Blue Skye Construction, Jim Graham, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Neil Albert, Strand
“There will be more energy back on this corner for the neighbors who live in the Ward 7 community, east of the river in general and for the entire city,” said Fenty from the sidewalk of 5131 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE. Fenty and WCDC head Rev. Steve Young, also leader of the Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People located across the street, went on to promise that 30 - 40 new, permanent jobs will created as a result of the revitalization effort.
Curiously enough, this marks the second time the District has named the WCDC and Banneker as developers in charge of the Strand. The first came this past July, when Deputy Mayor Neil Albert told DC Mud that the project would “break ground in the next two weeks.” Sean Madigan, the Mayor’s press contact, today told DC Mud the District was forced to hold off a bit, while the rest of the details concerning the theater were hammered out.
Banneker has had a dream year lobbying District officials, having secured from District work on the Strand, and having been named Master Planners for the Park Morton redevelopment, and as a developer of the $700 million Northwest One development. WMATA added to the company's portfolio by naming Banneker the lead developer in June for its Florida Avenue project, and Banneker has its own plans in place for 814 Thayer, a 52-unit condominium in Silver Spring's central business district. WMATA Board member and DC Councilmember Jim Graham reportedly pushed for the developer's inclusion in the project; WMATA said it chose the developer based on its "experience," noting the technical difficulty of building a project on top of an existing Metro tunnel, though Banneker has no previous experience building above a Metro tunnel. Or, apparently, above much else. Park Morton, 814 Thayer, and the WMATA project have yet to break ground, and Northwest One has only recently done so, leaving the conversion of several small apartment buildings into condominiums as its only achievements. Banneker's website touts its appointment to several of the above projects, as well as its "tremendous breadth of experience and professionalism." Calls to Banneker’s metro area offices went unanswered.
As it stands today, Green Door Advisors and Blue Skye Construction will handle the build-out of the heavily dilapidated building, located at the intersection of Burroughs Avenue and Division Avenue NE. The Strand Theater is currently on the DC Preservation League’s list of Most Endangered Places in the District. Hopefully, that will be changing as the Strand moves on to a bigger and better future.
Washington DC commercial real estate news
Monday, September 08, 2008
Re-Inventing Public Housing at Park Morton
Labels: Affordable Housing, Fenty, Georgia Avenue, Park Morton, Park View, rfp